Olusola Oke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, has lamented that despite Ondo’s natural endowment the state has remained largely economically handicapped, humanly underdeveloped, educationally static and socially sterile with the majority of the population ravaged by poverty.
Oke, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Akure, the state capital, on his governorship ambition, said Ondo State is blessed with natural, mineral, agricultural, and abundant human resources, yet, today it is one state in Nigeria that is under the heavy burden of backwardness and burden of poverty.
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According to him, “We are in deficit in many respects. In the education sector, there is a wide gap, in yarning to be filled. In the health sector, we are lagging. I was myself, a living witness to this recently when I was involved in a ghastly accident and was taken to the Trauma Centre in Ondo. My experience during my short stay there showed that Ondo State is far behind in the health sector and I know that nothing is happening in the road sector, in terms of road network. We can’t boast of any dualized 10km road in this state.
“Because of the gap in development, the unemployment gap is widening every day. Yearly, we produce not less than 15,000 graduates but three per cent of them are absorbed because there are no employers.
“At the beginning in this state, there was Ifon ceramics company, there was the Cocoa industry in Ile-Oluji, there was Oluwa glass, their Oil meal and a host of others that were complementing efforts of government in terms of employment but all these have become history and news ones aren’t coming up. Our economy today has become a civil service economy. Our people leave mostly on transfer payment.”
Oke, however, said that he has a bold and strategic comprehensive plan of action, aimed at reinvigorating key areas of the state’s local economy, to spur economic growth, generate productivity and prosperity, and improve the standard of living for the people of the Sunshine State.
“Ondo State needs a leader with vision, direction, and a sense of commitment not coming to fill any gap but to serve the people and what I’m looking for now is legacy because whether we like it or not, Ondo State is a state of war at this moment and we need a dogged fighter with a mission, direction, and vision who will be able to change the narrative of our dear state.
“I believe that government can open opportunity towards tapping our minerals resources, which will generate employment that will reduce criminality in our society and even generate income for our people. So the state is in its total state of collapse.
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“I had all my education in the rural area, I am a part of the people, I understand their suffering, I had suffered a lot with them, my involvement in the recent accident had nothing to do other than the bad road. So having suffered with them, I believe I am the right man for the job. The next governor of Ondo State must be a determined and focused person who will be ready to do the work.
“The next governor of Ondo State must be a determined and focused person who will be ready to do the work perfectly. My dream and mission for Ondo State is that we cannot continue to wait in the same manner for another four years.
“Unless we change the direction, narrative, and others, we cannot move forward in this state, and I am the right man for the job. We need to take Ondo state to the level of riches and God has given us all everything that we need. So it is in our interest for society to grow, for development to be in Ondo State and when all these things happen, we will all be the beneficiaries.
“All our problems didn’t start with the APC government, it has been there for a long. Olusegun Agagu came in to address some of those problems, and let me say that everybody running for governorship position has his ideas, dreams, and mission to governance and such a person will want to go according to his understanding and philosophy of development and others,” he said.
The APC chieftain, who spoke on his chances of picking the party’s ticket for the November 16, 2024, governorship election in the state, considering the array of aspirants including the incumbent governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, said the people of the state have their trust in him and expressed optimism in flying the flag of APC during the poll.
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BusinessDay reports that Oke and Aiyedatiwa, the incumbent governor, are from the same Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.
He disclosed that former governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu already knew about his aspiration and desire to succeed him in office before his death.
